Something about old tech

[DragonTamer1]

I bought an old Zenith Model A723 at an antique shop which was labeled as still working. After getting it home I plugged it in and started looking for a station. I did manage to find one but it didn't sound very good, none of the stations did. After using it for a bit it stopped working all together.

 

I took it to school and my professor was ecstatic to see something that uses tubes come into the classroom (the A723 was made in 1958). He brought in his tube tester and we found that out of the 8 tubes inside, three were no good and one was borderline. We replaced all four that were no good and now it sounds even better than most of the receivers in my house. The only ones that beat in in sound quality are more than $250 (don't know what the 723 was new). It now also has a very distinct smell coming from the tubes that I absolutely love. It's something that you just don't get from modern electronics.

 

There are still a few issues with the radio however, being nearly 60 years old, it's not surprising. There is a faint hum that sounds like it may be coming from the AC power input, probably a bad filter capacitor on the power supply. The AM receiver just doesn't work at all. It can pick up stations but it's not really amplifying the station that's coming in so it is incredibly faint. Something else that will need to be looked into.

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

Shango066

[Thunderpup]

nice find.

 

something I like about old tech, especially automotive tech, is that they were pretty simple.  You open them up and what you see is what you get.

 

Just think if an EMP ever goes off you would still be able to listen to the radio!